Sunday, October 24, 2010

14 days isn't a lot of time. When you break it down, that's roughly 42 meals excluding snacks. My goal for this holiday, as it is with any holiday, is to sample as much of the local food as my digestive system will allow. When you find yourself in Japan, you realise you have a formidable challenge before you.

Tokyo

Fugu

Potentially deadly unless prepared by a trained chef, many people wonder what all the fuss is about. I had a fugu course consisting of sashimi, fried fugu and fugu hot pot. The flesh is quite firm so the sashimi had to be sliced very thin. The texture that made the sashimi underwhelming in first course, really shone in the second. Fried fugu was a revelation! Firm and juicy, this fish was made for frying. The final course was a hot pot with mixed vegetables. The firm flesh was again very tasty and easy to pick from the bones. Looks like my chef passed his/her fugu preparation exams!

Friday, October 8, 2010

She says to me "Whilst you're over there, can you look for a picture? That wall's looking bare and when people walk in they need a picture to grab their eye."And I said "Yeah, sure thing. What kind of picture are you after?"And so she says "Something colourful, like you know, like those abstract paintings with splats of colour all over."And so I said "Umm okay. I mean, it's not Montmarte with painters on the side of the road, but MoMA's probably my best shot."And then she said "Yeah, just lie it flat in the bottom of your suitcase like I did in Paris. It'll be fine."

In short, never made it to MoMA. Now, whilst the food blogger's code of conduct dictates the taking and displaying of photos on absolutely everything plated in front of them, it wouldn't have mattered since Dovetail (and possibly all of NYC fine dining) enjoys mood lighting, thus killing any food shots. Fail.

Here's one I prepared earlier (but still post-meal)...

click on for the real pictures of food...

And so they say "But what abt the fooooood??"And so I say, on the other hand, highlights included the foie gras - much much better than any canned-mushed-cardboard-pate, melt on the tongue, no chewing - guaranteed!; the warmed cornbread-as-a-dinner-roll was a nice change - yes refills are allowed; however, the pièce de résistance for me was the sparkling apple cider - Duche de Longueville. Nevermind the $18USD per glass pricetag. Easily the most brilliant tasting, alcoholic-looking non-alcoholic drink I've ever had! Darn you Sainsbury's for the £1.99 pricetag! Where can I get this in/to Sydney?! Time for another jet set off to London methinks....

Monday, October 4, 2010

No mistake about this headline at all, that is the name of this snack pack.

I love it when manufacturers call a spade a spade, except when the "spade" also contains 17 other ingredients which presumably add something to the product and the packaging then needs to include the words "Potato Sticks" to ensure that consumers don't take legal action when they feel they've been mis-led.

I also have to ask, when there are so many alternate potato products out there, why package what are effectively potato chips in a can?!!

Having become more environmentally aware, part of me dislikes what I think of as excess packaging. On top of the can is a small plastic cap - yes, it bears the Calbee label and provides a nice place to stick the importer's details and is obviously meant to provide the consumer with a means to re-seal the can, once the inner ring-pull is opened.

But given how the contents "settle"during transport giving the consumer only this much ...